Thread: Eerie "echo" effect for scare

Tweet

I was thinking of the old teddy bears which let kids talk to them and a chip recorded the sound and talked back. That made me think how creepy it would be to people walking through a haunt if they suddenly heard their own words repeated behind them. A quick search led me to this site:

http://www.electronics123.com/s.nl/i.../.f?category=2

It seems pretty inexpensive, but you need to hold down a button to record and push another to playback.

Any electronic geniuses who could create an ambiance prop that records and plays back ever 10-20 seconds or so? Hopefully one that does not involve elaborate reprogramming.

Maybe there is an off the shelf option I am not aware of. That would be welcome too.

I think just microphones hidden in plain site that are plugged into a speaker with a little kick back would give you the wanted effect

Not sure I understand that. There are speakers that delay the sound from the mike?

I think this is a terrific idea. It would also sound cool inside a vortex tunnel.

Originally Posted by JustJimAZ

Not sure I understand that. There are speakers that delay the sound from the mike?

Some guitar amps have a delay effect built into them, although they might not delay the sound enough for what you want.

Do you know any DJ's? Lots of newer model dj mixers are loaded with effects including delay and echo. All you would need is a mic and a sound source to plug into

Thanks Tranzlusent. I have a friend who is a musician, maybe he can help.

I was thinking of pressure switches for the record/playback functions on the chip linked, but I'm worried that if there are more than a couple people, they will be standing on both switches at the same time.

I'm too new at this to try a complicated hack. If I could get the effect with a simple setup, that would be best.

they would have to talk directly into the mic for it to work, otherwise if it were turned up sensitive enough to pick them up it would pickup the sound it was emitting and you would get feedback.

Originally Posted by JustJimAZ

Thanks Tranzlusent. I have a friend who is a musician, maybe he can help.

I was thinking of pressure switches for the record/playback functions on the chip linked, but I'm worried that if there are more than a couple people, they will be standing on both switches at the same time.

I'm too new at this to try a complicated hack. If I could get the effect with a simple setup, that would be best.

Maybe I can give some decent advice than cause I'm a noob too

The way I was thinking is super simple. All you need is a mic, mixer (or fx rack) and a stereo, no pressure switches or sensors.


Like Empty_w said, just hang a mic where the tot's will walk by and it will pick up their voices. You'll probably want this to be in an area where there isn't much background noise as it will pick up everything and just sound like a mess (also don't point the speakers at the mic unless you like a lot of feedback.) The mixer will already be on echo mode, and it will broadcast what anyone says in realtime. You can adjust the amount of echo you want on the mixer,and there's always a constant on/off button too, so just set it up and walk away.

Simple huh?

However, if you are trying to record voices to play back after say, 20 seconds, this method will not work.

What if you had the mic at the beginning of your haunt and the speakers towards the end so they could hear their voices inside the haunt?? That would definately take care of any feedback issues you may encounter.

I will be looking into the delay pedal idea. If I can make the delay long enough, it sounds good!

Originally Posted by JustJimAZ

I will be looking into the delay pedal idea. If I can make the delay long enough, it sounds good!

Yea pedals would definately work, but you might have a hard time getting the effect you want as the pedal's delay's are usually very short, as you mentioned. However, there are some nice pedals out there with various effects and adjustability

Also i was thinking maybe attach a cone of some sort to the microphone for a homemade directional mic, this will help with feedback issues